I know a few people are aware of the current situation within my family, but I thought it would be appropriate to post a message here concerning our 22 year old neice from Petersburg Florida.

Please keep her in your prayers, she is a victim of being slipped a drug in her drink and she has suffered a traumatic brain injury. She has a 2 year old little girl too.

Her family is having a very difficult time trying to get her rehabilitation services. The medical center she is at: Largo Medical Center in Largo, Florida. They do not even have a board certified neurologist and the person claiming to be a neurologist, is actually a MD acting as a neurologist. Now we find out he is not even board certified.

This hospital has all but given up on her and they refuse to refer her to another facility. There was talk of the hospital moving her to a hospice facility when it appears to the family that she is making progress each day.

We have started an online journal to document her story which you can read here:

At this time, all we are asking is for people to try and raise this to the attention of media outlets and newspapers. It would be great to get some focus in the Florida St. Petersburg area. Our hope is to have her moved to a rehabilitation facility or better yet to 1 of only 16 TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) units that are in the United States. We would like to see her at Spaulding Rehab's TBI unit in Boston since all of her extended family, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, are all located in the Boston Massachusetts area.

If you could pass this website on to everyone you know. We are hoping that if enough people get involved or speak up then our chances of getting Christina moved to a rehab facility will be realized.

Our Prayers and thoughts are with your neice. It is so sad what people do. They only think of making the $$$$.

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"We all get heavier as we get older because there's a lot more information in our heads." So I'm not fat, I'm just really intelligent and my head couldn't hold anymore so it started filling up the rest of me! "Mama Tater"

I am sorry to hear about your family crisis. I am at this very moment in prayer for your niece and family, and I will send out the link to all the people I know.

Robert

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The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error. ~John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, 1859

Education: that which reveals to the wise, and conceals from the stupid, the vast limits of their knowledge. ~Mark Twain

I'll add in my prayers and pass your info on. Just an FYI...my sister works for the Police Dept here in Tempe, AZ and so that more people are aware...at least here...we have had an increase of drugs being slipped into drinks...not just on or near the campus of ASU but in high schools. But they are putting it in soda and even gatorade...so it does not have to be at a bar...it can happen so easily and just like your niece...now she and her family are fighting just to give her her life back! Thank Goodnes she is surrounded by a strong and loving family as well...my best wishes Paul for your niece, her daughter and your family....

Thank you all so much for your prayers for Christina. We are not sure which way medically speaking this is going to go. Although we understand the laws in Florida are very strange indeed and that it gives alot of power to the doctor.

Just an FYI - the doctor handling her care portrayed to be a neurologist, but he was not. He is not even board certified!!!

We have spoken with her very good friend every night, mother, father and brother. Everything they are telling us indicates that she is not a "Terry Schivio"case.

Some things might be happening, we got some encouraging messages from people that depending on what they find out may act. One from a national organization and 1 from a very well known person (although his message was very brief).

Understand none of us would want to keep someone alive that is brain dead. But that is the kicker, she is not brain dead yet the hospital is treating her as such. Everything we have heard indicates she is aware, trying to talk (with a trach!!) and laughs, crys and follows people around the room. This is not just a brain stem working!

Ok, the latest news is her doctor resigned from the case and FINALLY they are inserting a feeding tube in her stomach for nutrition. She has been losing weight and we want to keep her alive for competent medical professionals can actually review her case, do all of the appropriate testing and give us a definite medical opinion. This poor family has been told a different story every few days.

I'll tell you how desperate we were last weekend we were prepared to fly her to Boston ourselves until the hospital got wind and blocked it.

All I can say is be careful of those Florida hospitals. It seems the laws are more for senior citizens rather than a 22 year old girl in this situation.

It seems incredible to me that her family is not allowed to have more of a say. Who exactly is her legal guardian or power of attorney here? The narrative (somebody's post) says that they had it fixed up for her to go to Boston, but then "it did not happen." What happened to that?

It may be because of the embarrassment when Jeb Bush tried unsuccessfully to intervene in the Schiavo case that this is being downplayed or ignored, since I am sure you have all tried to communicate with governmental authority. But it's true that time is very important, if she is going to recover function. The fact that people are consistently visiting, talking, reading to her, and all that is on her side. You're a great family to make a united front to accomplish that.

Some great news is unfolding and we will post an update on Christina's website once it becomes apparent how this is going to turn out.

A major national organization is getting involved. All I can say is that one call by a director of this organization has resulted in a complete unequivable change in attitude by this hospital. Their intention is to get her records to a board of neurologists up in Boston and to ultimately relocate her to a rehabilitation facility - hopefully in the Boston area.

They could not believe what this hospital has been doing. She is their youngest patient and they are not equipped to handle her critical care. It was almost as if they were just sucking the insurance money dry. There will be a complete audit of her records and this is just the start.

Thanks for everyone's prays and well wishes. I honestly believe this can make a difference.

I just now got to read this. It's so sad.. She, of course, will be in my thoughts as well as your family. I am so glad to hear that things are looking up. I hope she has a fast recovery so she can get back to her little daughter.

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Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding. ~Ralph Waldo EmersonIf you judge people you have no time to love them. ~Mother Teresa